CANADA'S SEABOARD

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4514, 3 July 1937, Page 5

CANADA'S SEABOARD

LACK OF PROTECTION. WARTIME POSSIBILITIES. Vancouver, June 9. The statement of Mr. Mackenzie King in Parliament at Ottawa, repeated at the Empire Conference in London, that he would not commit Canada to any contribution to Empire defence, has again drawn pointed attention to the need for co-or-dination of defence, in this Dominion, with the Empire scheme discussed at the Conference. Our much-publicised defence estimates of-this year call for two destroyers, to replace two obsolete ships, and four mine-sweepers. That means one destroyer and two trawlers to patrol our Pacific and Atlantic seaboard! If, as in the early months of the Great War, the Royal Navy has its hands full in other quarters of the globe, Canada will be an easy prize for the maritime invader. Aside from actual invasion, the submarine menace is a great as ever. A single, modern underwater craft would take a heavy toll of shipping on either coast.

To illustrate the futility of depending on our geographical isolation — unless we .are really relying on United States protection—observers recall the situation on the Pacific coast in 1914 when war broke out. Admiral von Spee was in the Pacific, in charge of a squadron that included two of the finest cruisers of the German Navy. They were the Schornhorst and the Gneisenau. sister ships, each of 11,420 tons, eight 8.2 guns, six 5.9 guns, and eighteen 22-pounders. The Emden, the Nurnberg and the Leipzig each mounted ten 4-inch guns. To these five were added a number of supply ships and colliers, and the Titania, an auxiliary cruiser.

Von Spee had before him two alternatives: to establish a base on Canada's Pacific coast, or to operate on the South American coast. He chose the latter. Had he chosen the former, it possible that his ships would have destroyed a large volume of merchant marine vessels, after having disposed of two sloops, H.M.S. Sheerwater and H.M.S. Algerine, and the obsolete cruiser Rainbow, built in 1893. They would have seized two new submarines, just built in Seattle for the Government of Chile, and purchased, with feverish haste, by the Government of British Columbia. Possibly he would have divided his force, sending three cruisers to deal with the ports of Vancouver and Victoria, and to occupy the naval base at Esquimalt. With his whole squadron moved north to Prince Rupert, also the terminus of a transcontinental railway, von Spee would be able to fortify that port, and to store ammunition and supplies seized at the other three centres. The destruction of shipping alone would have justified the move. In addition, it would have taken ten months to have dislodged - the invader. It is safe to assume that the First Canadian Division would have been hurried across the continent to defend the Pacific coast, instead of being sent to France. Admiral Sturdee would have had a tougher task than the one he undertook at Falkland Islands, where von Spee's career was abruptly terminated.